Sabaton have long perfected their signature sound, this in combination with Joakim‘s prominent vocals make it no surprise that the new album has some instant familiarity to it.

The album starts with the catchy single ‘Templars‘, a song about the Knights of the Order of the Temple. It’s engaging enough that it’s fun to listen to no matter if it’s the first time or the 50th, but it’s also simple enough that you can sing or at the very least hum along to it almost immediately. The added choir vocals make it quite a grand and epic opening track for the album.

The next single, ‘Hordes of Khan‘ focus on Genghis Khan. The song is fast and strongly driven by Hannes Van Dahl‘s drums. The sync heavy intro is followed by a bombardment of heavy riffs that shouldn’t leave any fan disappointed. I still find it a little bit hard to digest when Sabaton make such enthusiastic and, at least for me, happiness educing songs about questionable historic figures, but it bothers me way less on this album than it did on ‘Heroes‘, as Legend is a far more neutral term.

‘A Tiger Among Dragons‘, which focuses on Chinese warlord Lü Bu, builds up a little slower and overall is less heavy than most of the songs on the new album, but it isn’t any less interesting. The intro starts with kind of a marching beat combined with a lot of atmosphere building keys. This song stands out to me as it seems to prioritise epic-ness over pure fun.

‘Crossing the Rubicon‘ which featured Nothing More singer Jonny Hawkins on the single tells the story of Gaius Julius Caesar. It is a bit strange to me that Hawkins isn’t on the album version of the song, but to be honest, while I like his band, I don’t think his voices really matched Joakim‘s, so I actually enjoy the album version of the song more, it just fits more seamlessly into the album this way.

‘I, Emperor‘ has a interesting lyrical structure, with most lines in the verse and chorus starting with “I will” (or “I’ll”) a choice that I think is quite fitting for a song centred on Napoleon Bonaparte. Writing the lyrics as from first person perspective further strengthens the egocentric feel of the song. Another small genius feature of the song is the slight melody change up for the line “I’ll win, the war” which just emphasizes it even more.

‘Maid of Steel‘ brings back Sabaton‘s full explosive speed and energy right from the first second of the song. The song focus on the somewhat empowering story of Jeanne d’Arc proving that you can shape history regardless of your origin. The bridge section of the song almost feels like a hymn and it’s followed by some very epic and very heavy guitar solos.

‘Impaler‘ tells the controversial story of Vlad III. The song is on the slower side, but it doesn’t lack in heaviness. The music switches between menacing, minimally instrumentalised parts and darkness trenched moody guitar riffs. The guitar solo at around 2/3 of the song is very well done, but feels a bit to light hearted for the rest of the song in my opinion, but overall I think the songs is really well done.

‘Lightning at the Gates‘ which is focused on Hannibal Barca, sounds oddly familiar, not in a bad way, but i can’t shake the feeling that I have heard that riff before. It feels a bit like the 2010 released ‘Uprising‘. The intensity of the songs keeps growing continuously and while it never becomes especially heavy it feels very heroic.

‘The Duelist‘ on the other hand reminds me of ‘Shiroyama‘ from 2019. Maybe it’s just that Sabaton trademark sound that they have perfected over the last two decade, whatever it is I certainly don’t mind it. This is one of the most catchy and fun songs of the album.

The longest song on the album ‘The Cycle of Songs‘ focuses on Senusret III, Pharaoh of Egypt. Due it’s length every part of the song has a bit more time to breath and it makes the song feel calmer without needing to lower the energy level to much. I like the concept as it still very much feels like Sabaton but also offers something fresh to their fans.

‘Till Seger‘ brings us back to Sabaton‘s home country and back to the ‘Carolus Rex‘ with a new song about Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden. It is possibly my favourite on the album. Ever since the aforementioned album was released in 2012 it has been my favourite album of the band. And I always particularly enjoyed their works in Swedish, although they are harder to understand for me. These songs about the history of their own home in their native language just feel extra special to me.

Line-up:

Joakim Brodén – vocals
Pär Sundström – bass
Chris Rörland – guitar
Thobbe Englund – guitar
Hannes Van Dahl – drums

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